Re: 1994 XJS V12 Coupe

[Esta]

Are there no local scrap yards or anywhere that does reconditioned parts? :-S

[db.08]

A bit of sad news today.
After spending some serious cash on a new condenser for the AC-system, it actually worked for several weeks...
Now it has stopped working, and today I got a shop to do some basic testing on the system.
The verdict was quite heavy, a new compressor is needed. And those does not come cheap

Jaguar Classic Spares quotes £779 for it. The shop that had the car could get one for nearly twice that...

If anyone have any tip on he possibillities on getting a AC compressor cheaper, I am listening.

That's bad news.
Was there no warranty on the old one Bjorn?

[Bjorn V]

A bit of sad news today.
After spending some serious cash on a new condenser for the AC-system, it actually worked for several weeks...
Now it has stopped working, and today I got a shop to do some basic testing on the system.
The verdict was quite heavy, a new compressor is needed. And those does not come cheap

Jaguar Classic Spares quotes £779 for it. The shop that had the car could get one for nearly twice that...

If anyone have any tip on he possibillities on getting a AC compressor cheaper, I am listening.

That's bad news.
Was there no warranty on the old one Bjorn?

I think the compressor was/is old, soo I guess there is no warranty left on it.
A friend in the Swedish Jaguar Club has a spare compressor that may fit.
If it does fit I can buy it from him a lot cheaper than from other sources.
I'm hoping for that.

[Bjorn V]

Well, havent written anything here for quite a while. mainly because not much has happened. I have used the car allmost every week for something. And the AirConditioning problem aside, there have been no problems. This car simply loves an open road where it can strech it´s legs. The next thing that´s going to happen is probably that I´m going to talk to a garage not to far from here that specializes in Jaguar. The plan is to get them to get the engine a bit of work. There is nothing really wrong with it (as far as I know) but it could benefit from a bit of professional TLC. I think the valve clearances need to be adjusted as an example.
Watch this space for news about it.

[db.08]

Well, havent written anything here for quite a while. mainly because not much has happened. I have used the car allmost every week for something. And the AirConditioning problem aside, there have been no problems. This car simply loves an open road where it can strech it´s legs. The next thing that´s going to happen is probably that I´m going to talk to a garage not to far from here that specializes in Jaguar. The plan is to get them to get the engine a bit of work. There is nothing really wrong with it (as far as I know) but it could benefit from a bit of professional TLC. I think the valve clearances need to be adjusted as an example.
Watch this space for news about it.

Great to hear Bjorn. I haven't been using mine I'm ashamed to say. It is still sitting there from week to week. I am just too busy at the moment.

[Bjorn V]

Well, well,

After a long and good season, the XJS is now tucked away in a garage for the winter.
Wich means I now have to settle with driving my -93 XJ40. To be honest, that aint so bad at all.

Nothing much to report about. I have not pushed any further on the air-con thing. The compressor that my friend had came from an X300. It was not the correct type for my car, unfortunately.

Perhaps the XJS will not be inside the garage the whole winter. That depends on wether I will be able to talk the workshop into accepting to give the car a bit of the above mentioned TLC.

[Dannyplum]

Hi Bjorn,

congrats on the MOT but sad news on the compressor! I`ve been looking around for one also, (it`s at the back of my mind so far as more pressing matters in the restoration I`m doing). I use a few companies but Britishparts are one of the main ones, might want to see if they can get hold of one for you?

http://www.britishparts.co.uk/.sc/ms/cat/Jaguar%20XJS--Cooling-Heating

Guessing that`s a fitted price also?

Good luck with the search!

[Bjorn V]

Time for a little update on the car.

It seems that the garage I´ve been talking to won´t have time to do TLC on my car for a while.
So I started on a different project.
The thing is that the car has a tndency to blow hot air on my feet regardless of what I want it to do.
After searching the 'net and my Jaguar Heritage CD for a while I've found out tha my car has the Delanaire mkIII system and that it is not uncommon that the electrical flap motors cause trobble on these cars.

According to the CD the lower flap motor is behind the A/C ECU, which is located on the right side of the centre console.

This weekend I went to the garage to investigate. I did find the A/C ECU where it was suopposed to be. The problem beeing that I have yet to discover where the screws are that fix this thing in place. Frustration.

If anyone have any experience of somthing similar to this, I would like to hear from you.

Overwiev


The A/C ECU

How do I get it out???

Close up on the A/C ECU

[Dannyplum]

Hi Bjorn,

I haven`t done this job, but I`ve seen some horrible ways of ECU security over the years, all done my the manufacturer, but getting them out was a nightmare. Although I wouldn`t have thought this was the Jaguar approach. Are there no rivets etc holding it onto the back panel? Can you remove the panel itself with the ECU on?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Jaguar-XJS-92-96-AC-Computer-ECU-/380364483350#ht_785wt_932

There`s one selling above on ebay, has some pics of the ECU removed, might be a bit more of a help?

Good luck!

[Bjorn V]

Well. Progress. At least a little of it.

After more searching I found the last screw that held the AC ECU in place.

I reached it with a flexible screwdriver this way.


A close up look.



Then I could get the ECU out and behind it was the lower flap motor. The plan was to remove the motor to test/investigate it.
However. It turned out that although I could get to the motor removing it was impossible. A metal bar blocked the way, and it seemed to me that to remove that thing ment a complete removal of the dashboard. Not funny.
I decided to try and test the motor in place instead using two 6V batteries:



This way I at least foud out that if I connected the motor to 12V it did run and I could use my fingers to feel that the flaps inside were moving too.
Good news so far. I guess further testing would mean to re-connect the cars battery and meassure things. he CD has quite a lot of info here. But that will have to wait a bit. At least until next year...

[Bjorn V]

A little bit of news.

Not much has happened since I wrote here last time. I have put everything back together and today I started the car for the first time this year. It started on the first try without a lot of protests. Drove around a bit and everything semms to be as it was. A, byt one small change, at least I think it has changed. The car does not allways send hot air on my feet. At least not today. Perhaps my testing of the flap motor did improve things.
Next thing on the agenda is to take the car to a AC-speciallist to se what can be done. I guess that if I want a functioning AC I will have to cash up for a new compressor. I have put a bit of money aside during the winter for that.
After that I will have to start to think about getting the car to MOT.

[Bjorn V]

Well.
Now the car has visited an AC speciallist. The car got a functioning compressor and my wallet got a bit lighter...
Now we will have to see how long the AC works this time.
When I collected the car after the fix i did not get the hot feet problem I've had earlier. Now I only got cold air on my feet. I seems like the flap has stuck gain, but this time in "cold" mode. I guess I will have to investigate this further. Some other time.

[Bjorn V]

Well. Not much seems to happen here. But at least the car passed it´s MOT yesterday. Me happy.

[Dannyplum]

Congratulations! Mine had been off the road for a long time, great feeling when they`re back on the road. Although far from sorted! Hope you get some good miles going now!